Hungary: Urine sample protest against drug test idea

A proposal to make young people in Hungary take annual drug tests has gone down badly with one youth party, which delivered urine samples to the local council in protest.

District mayor Mate Kocsis, from the ruling Fidesz party, wants all 12 to 18-year-olds to be tested for drugs, as well as politicians and journalists, the Hungary Today website reports. But the Young Democrats don’t think much of the idea, so several members filled little jars with urine and took them to Budapest’s 8th district council offices, where Mr Kocsis works. The group is the youth wing of the opposition Democratic Coalition party. Outside the council building, Young Democrats leader Bendeguz Koppany Szarvas told the press that the mayor should have “nothing to do with our private lives whatsoever”, and accused him of seeing all young people as drug addicts.

The Fidesz parliamentary group has announced it will support the drug test proposal with some “refinements”, including ensuring that parents are informed of their children’s drug test results. There would also be no legal consequences for any minors who test positive, according to Fidesz MP Antal Rogan. The Democratic Coalition says the proposal would cost 40 billion forints ($162m; £103m), 400 times more than the amount allocated to drug prevention in next year’s budget.